


The Revolution will be Televised

by Epic4ver1990



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:21:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25236868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Epic4ver1990/pseuds/Epic4ver1990
Summary: Marsai has always considered herself Pro Black, but when she meets Erik Stevenson he introduces her to a whole new world and she realizes, there’s levels to this shit.I do not own Black Panther or any of its characters.
Relationships: Erik Killmonger/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	The Revolution will be Televised

Marsai exited the gas station, her sisters leading the way. It was a summer day, at the end of July and 85 degrees in Oakland, California. She saw him as he stood holding the door for them as they exited. 

She thanked him with a smile and kept it moving to her truck. She stood at the pump watching the dollars roll as her gas entered the vehicle when she heard a whistle. Not the cat call kind, but the one her dad used to do in the grocery store when the family would get split up so they'd find their way back to his location. 

Not paying too much attention she continued pumping her gas until she heard it again, accompanied by an _ay little baby!_ In a baritone similar to the _you’re welcome,_ she had received while exiting the gas station. 

She turned to see that it was indeed the same voice. The guy that had held the door for them was standing by a Maserati SUV which she knew to be a $100,000 vehicle. He cocked his head to the side and threw his hand up in a come here motion. 

First off Marsai looked around to see whom he might be talking to, cause second off this man was fine as hell and obviously the shit, so he could not possibly be speaking to her. 

“ Yeah you!,” he laughed, “ Come here.” 

Just then the nozzle clicked signaling her purchase was complete. She turned putting the nozzle back on its hook. Thinking if it would be a good idea to go over to him. She had just watched a video on twitter earlier that day of a woman that was kidnapped from a grocery store parking lot. Least to say she was even more weary of men than she usually was. But she had also just seen a post about a girl that had been shot in the face for rejecting someone. Putting the top back on the gas tank of her Ninja turtle green Wrangler Jeep. She decided she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t, so she decided to go over and see what he had to say. A man that sexy couldn’t possibly be crazy right.

“ Little baby?” She questioned as she got closer to him standing more than an arms length away. She was damn near 6 feet away like the city was still under quarantine.

“ Yeah, I don’t know yo name, but now you can remedy that. I’m Erik.”

“ Marsai.” She said back

“ Nice to meet you Marsai, why you standin all the way over there?” He asked with questioning eyes.

“ Don’t take this wrong, cause your fine, but you buff as fuck and niggas be trippin.” 

At this he threw his head back laughing, reviling a set of perfectly straight, white teeth with gold fangs on his lower canines and a matching set of dimples. “ you right niggas do be trippin, but I’m not.” 

“Okay.” She said not closing the distance. 

“ You know why they be trippin right?”

“ No,” she answered fidgeting with her wallet.

“ Cause you pretty and barely got no clothes on, out here glowing and shit.” He said gesturing to the black compression tights and matching sports bra she wore. 

“ Why can't I just be comfortable in my own skin?” 

“ Cause niggas wanna be comfortable in you skin with you.” He said, still blowing her mind with his smile and dimples.

“ Alright, I feel you,” she said. This was a normal outfit for her, but she had spent most of her adult life weighing nothing but 97 pounds, so until recently she could wear whatever she wanted and not get a glance.

  
  


Just then a call came through on his cell and he answered, _one second,_ he mouthed to Marsai as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone, " yeah, alright I'll be there in a minute." He said before hanging up and giving his attention back to her, “ Alright little mama, I gotta head out, but Imma call you later.” he said as he pulled out a different phone to take down her number.

" What's that about, one for the plug and one for the the hoes?" she said gesturing to his phone.

He smiled, " Naw, something like that and nothing like that."

“ Well, who said I was giving you mah number?” She said with a smile.

“ You did.” 

“ When, did I say that?” she said back smartly.

“ You been over here cheesin like the damn Cheshire Cat since you walked over.” He said flashing those dimples again. “ That told me all I needed to know.” 

That made her blush like crazy as she told him her number. 

“ Alright, now walk back to yo truck so I can watch that ass as you walk away.”

“Ww what, you have like no filter. ” She said placing her hand over her face in embarrassment.

"Not at all." he said.

“ Now Ima be all self conscious.”

“ You betta swang that fat ass for me then.”

“ Just so you know, I’m clumsy as shit. So I might fall.”

That made him laugh as she walked away feeling more self conscious than she had already been, she didn’t believe her ass was fat at all. Her mom had been telling her that she’d been gaining weight and he butt was getting fat, but she hadn’t believed her. She had spent most of her high school and college years, 5’ 4” and 97 pounds. Needless to say she wasn’t really used to niggas checking her out. 4 months ago, now at age 25 she had changed her diet and got a trainer. She was now happily sitting at 115, not her goal weight of 125 but she was happy to have made it that far. Now this fine mothafucka was watching her ass as she walked away. Self conscious didn’t cover how she was feeling as she made it into the driver's seat of her truck. Where her sisters Marsharie and Anchor let out loud squeals.

“Told you he was lookin at you.” Marsharie said as Marsai started the vehicle. Looking in her rare view watching him climb into his SUV. 

When they came out of the store her sister had told her that he had checked for her but she hadn’t believed her saying that he was more likely checking her or Anchor. Marsharie was 5’3” and 127 lbs. and her ass _was indeed_ fat. She had a very small waist and everybody, not just men, committed it on her ass. She’d even been asked where she got her butt done ones. She didn’t have a lick of chest, but she had hips and ass for days. Whenever Marsai was out with her sisters they would always get attention over her. Marsharie with her dimples and curly 3b hair and glowing toffee skin tone and Anchor at 5’1” and 117 with her cafe glow, dimples, 36c titties and fat ass. She was 4 months pregnant and men were still tranna holla, wasn’t no niggas checking for Marsai. Up until a year ago her dark caramel skin had bad acne scarring and she was thin as wind up until 4 months ago. She had a pretty face and people always complimented her on her eyes, bubbly personality and fashion sense, but when it came to her body she mostly got the _damn you skinny_ comments from men and the _omg you’re so thin_ comments from women. Needless to say someone that looked like Erik checking for her gave her a major confidence boost. 

Erik didn’t call her the next day or the day following and she wondered to herself why she was sweating it. She put her phone in her gym bag that sat in the passenger seat of her truck. 

_Stop being thirsty,_ she thought to herself as she snatched up the bag to exit the car. _Just cause he’s the first nigga to give you attention that you are actually attracted to._ She verbally chastised herself as she entered the front lobby at her gym. _He's probably a pimp anyway, he sure spoke like one. In that case i hope he doesn't call._

Even when she was skinny to def men had approached her. Not often okay it was rare, but some did approach. Only thing was they just weren’t it, having multiple baby mama’s, or being broke, or had nothing intelligent to say, or their personalities didn’t click, they just were not her type, or controlling, or they couldn't understand her because she had not experienced the things most people her age had and thought she was weird. And it wasn’t that she was throwing shade at them she just chopped it up to that she wasn’t in the mindset, crowd, tax bracket and physical appearance to attract the type of man she was attracted to. That’s why she had thrown herself into school, then into her work and was making a pretty pennie a year. Now it was time to work on that body. She didn’t know if Erik was broke and really just a boughetto ass niggah with multiple baby mama’s, but outwardly she was totally attracted and that was dangerous. With most of the men she’d dated there were things about them that she was already not attracted to physically, so she was able to stay objective and weed out their baggage and bullshit. She worried now that if he did call and this turned into something if she would be able to see his bullshit, if he had any. 

Today was a leg day and it was kicking her ass. 

“ Come on, come on, just 5 more!” her trainer Kat said as Marsai struggled with her final rep of leg lifts. 

She pushed through the last rep and disengaged from the machine. 

After her shower she admired her work, her legs were screaming but they looked really good. She couldn’t flex yet or anything because she’d probably fall over, but her muscles were more defined and she was excited about her progress. Her body goal was somewhere between Teyana Taylor who weighs about 115 and Meagan Good who weighs 126. She didn’t have the C or D cups they have, but her _biggie smalls,_ B cups would have to do. Her waist trainer that everyone thought her bony ass was ridiculous for wearing, had taken her waist from 25” to a 23 ½” which made her hips appear fuller. She turned to the side to inspect her butt, and she had to admit it looked good, she then turned to face forward and inspected her boobs and they were sitting up there. She grinned at herself in the mirror. She couldn’t imagine that she could look like this. She wanted to hit a twerk right quick, but her leg muscles weren’t having it. 

Just then a text came through on her cell. She grabbed her phone seeing that it was an unknown number. Opening it her heart leapt a little. 

_This Erik, imma bout to call you. Pick up._

The phone started ringing startling her into dropping it, hurrying she picked it up inspecting it before answering. 

“ You busy?” He asked as soon as she answered.

“ No, I‘m getting ready to leave the gym.”

“ Coo, you hungry?”

On que her stomach started growling. 

Laughter burst out of Erik, “ Damn I could hear that shit through the phone.” 

Absolutely embarrassed she answered , “ so, where are we eating?” 

__________________

As she walked through the entrance at Black Bottom Southern Kitchen, She felt wind sweep through the mauve pink, off the shoulder, chiffon crop top she wore. It was a black owned restaurant, the first location was in North Hollywood, but about 6 months ago they had expanded to Oakland. She had been meaning to visit, so she was excited that Erik had chosen the place.

“ Look at you,” he said with a flash of his dimples. “ still ain’t got no damn clothes on.”

Marsia’s smile widened from ear to ear as she grabbed her bare right shoulder subconsciously.

“ Don’t try to cover up now.” He said teasingly.

“ I’m not,” she said, removing her hand, then placing it back again, smacking her lips with a huff. “You really like embarrassing me don’t you?”

“ Yep, you get all cute and shit.”

She smiled even harder which shouldn't be possible, because the one she was sporting could rival Julia Roberts in “pretty woman.” Her smile turned into a laugh that turned into a low wheezing snort, “oh Goodness,” she said to herself as she dipped her head, smashing her hand, fingers spread to the middle of her forehead in embarrassment, yet again. 

“ You so weird,” he said laughing at her. 

“ I know, can’t help it.” She mumbled, then breathed in trying to get herself together. 

He opened up his menu, “ Have you been here before?”

“ Nope, but I've been hearing a lot of good things. Have you?”

“ Of course.” 

“ So, what would you suggest?” 

___________________

She had ordered the Shrimp and grits and they were absolutely to die for. Erik had gotten the Gumbo.

Lunch had gotten interesting, when her and Erik started talking about the state of black people in the world.

“ Okay let’s back it up. Let’s only speak on the state of black people in the US, because we have a better perspective of that.” 

“ Alright,” he said. 

“ I think that desegregation might have been the worst thing to happen to Black people in the US.”

A smile ventured Erik’s lips, “ why do you say that?”

“ Because we were not ready, mentally or economically. I look at it like Black people are in a relationship with the United States. 

What does a person have to be before getting into a relationship with another person in order for it to be healthy? They have to have a knowledge of who they are, their mind has to be in a good place, they have to have confidence in themselves and their abilities. If a person comes into a relationship with all kinds of insecurities it fails and nothing to contribute economically they become dependent on the person they are in relationship with. We as a people were not economically ready, when we come into this relationship we were basically destitute and the country that we are in a relationship with wants to keep us that way, so that we remain dependant.” 

“ So, in your mind, the black populous, we did this to ourselves.” 

She blew out a short breath, “ in a way yes and in a way no. In a relationship you can only be responsible for what you do, and it takes two to tango. I believe that we need the same thing today that we needed back then. We didn’t need integration, we needed to be free to grow and that’s what we need now , we needed them to stop destroying our cities and objectively blocking us from increasing, while actively killing us, but now the mindset of many of us is set on selfishness. That unity that we had from the emancipation proclamation until the end of the civil rights movement is no more and I don’t know if we can ever unify like that again. They did a good job of dismantling and separating us after the civil rights movement and we unintentionally let them.”

“ So you’re a separatist?”

“No, I just believe that in order for black folks to be equal we have to truly be equal and in order to have done that we would have needed to grow into prosperity and confidence after the emancipation proclamation. I don’t think we can do that now because we are too blind to unify. Plus we would be starting from scratch for something that should've been prospering for the last 157 years. I Love my people though and in the great words of Issa Rae, _I'm rooting for everybody Black._ Which is why I should been made it to this restaurant. Those grits were so good.”

__________________

When the check arrived Marsai grabbed the check folder and sat it in front of her, open, looking it over.

“ What you doing?” Erik asked, looking at her in amusement, as she grabbed for her purse.

“ I got it.” Marsai said, pulling her Chanel wallet from her bag. 

“ Girl,” Erik said as he lifted up from his seat and swiped the folder from her. “ If you don’t put your wallet back in that pop-sickle stick lunch box.”

“ It's not a lunch box and it's fly as shit, thank you.”

“ Yeah whatever.” he said, sliding his card into the sleeve of the folder.

“ Well, can I at least do the tip.” 

“Nope.” he said as the waitress returned to the table and took the order to the register.

“ What’s your opinion.” she asked, taking a sip of her pink lemonade.

“ Oh, I’m full on separatist. Why should we stay integrated to a society that wasn’t and isn’t intended for our good. I think Malcolm had it right when he said that token integration was a false solution.” 

“ Do you think we should separate now?” 

“ Naw, we aint ready.”

“ I don’t think we can. There’s too much separation between our people. We can’t see eye to eye for shit and we don’t trust each other. What could we do to get ready that all of us would even agree on.”

“ I’m working on it.” was all he said. 

_________________


End file.
